I bought this 1TB WD My Passport USB hard drive not so long ago. After only a month of use on my laptop(Dell Vostro 1500 with Win7 Home 64-bit), it suddenly stopped showing up in My Computer.
When it used to work, sometimes when I plugged it into one of the four USB ports, it would beep for a very long time(not always), when it stopped beeping, it would show up in My Computer and become available for use.
But now, when the beep stops, it will not show up in My Computer at all, so I have no way to access it.
It is still there in Device Manager as
"WD My Passport 0740 USB Device" under Disk Drives
and it also show up under Disk Management...but as
Disk 1
Unknown
Not Initialized
with no report on the disk size
I am unable to initialize it. It would give me "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error".
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 993x705.
It also show up normally under Devices and Printers
At the right bottom corner of my desktop, I am able to eject the hard drive normally
But no matter how many times, and which of the 4 USB ports I plug it in, it will just beep for a minute or so then it will still not showing up for use under My Computer.
I wasn't sure if it is simply a software problem(settings conflict, or a virus), or if the hard drive is a bad one that is dying. Because I am out of the country for the moment, I am away from my other computers.
This is the sound it makes:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/sxfvkb
I was able to find 3 different computers from other people to try it on. It worked on 2 out of the 3 first. One was a laptop, one was a desktop. Not only it showed up under My Computer quickly without even a single beep, but also I was able to access files on it like normal, even played a video from it.
Then the same day I went home and tried it on my laptop again after I removed my cellphone from "Devices and Printers". (my cellphone wasn't connected at the time anyway, but it was still showing up there). The hard drive actually did not beep this time after I plugged it in, and it showed up as "initialized" under Disk Manager with its size showing.
After I assigned a different letter to it, it showed up immediately in My Computer, and I was able to access everything on it.(the reason I assigned a different letter for it was because once I plugged in a flash drive without the WD hard drive plugged in, so the flash drive took the drive letter of the hard drive. Now I assigned the letter Z to the hard drive)
I was downloading a torrent to it.
Then the very next day, it stopped showing up again with the torrent no where near finishing...just started.
Now everything had returned to how it was as shown in the above pictures. Long beeping, show up everywhere except in My Computer.
There was also suggestion of not enough power from the USB ports. But I don't see it as a reason because it actually worked for a month.
I just tested it on another person's laptop, it showed the same symptom as on mine... long beeping with no showing in My Computer.
I don't get it, but I still don't think it is any hardware problem.
Someone please help me to make it to work again?
When it used to work, sometimes when I plugged it into one of the four USB ports, it would beep for a very long time(not always), when it stopped beeping, it would show up in My Computer and become available for use.
But now, when the beep stops, it will not show up in My Computer at all, so I have no way to access it.
It is still there in Device Manager as
"WD My Passport 0740 USB Device" under Disk Drives
and it also show up under Disk Management...but as
Disk 1
Unknown
Not Initialized
with no report on the disk size
I am unable to initialize it. It would give me "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error".
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 993x705.
It also show up normally under Devices and Printers
At the right bottom corner of my desktop, I am able to eject the hard drive normally
But no matter how many times, and which of the 4 USB ports I plug it in, it will just beep for a minute or so then it will still not showing up for use under My Computer.
I wasn't sure if it is simply a software problem(settings conflict, or a virus), or if the hard drive is a bad one that is dying. Because I am out of the country for the moment, I am away from my other computers.
This is the sound it makes:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/sxfvkb
I was able to find 3 different computers from other people to try it on. It worked on 2 out of the 3 first. One was a laptop, one was a desktop. Not only it showed up under My Computer quickly without even a single beep, but also I was able to access files on it like normal, even played a video from it.
Then the same day I went home and tried it on my laptop again after I removed my cellphone from "Devices and Printers". (my cellphone wasn't connected at the time anyway, but it was still showing up there). The hard drive actually did not beep this time after I plugged it in, and it showed up as "initialized" under Disk Manager with its size showing.
After I assigned a different letter to it, it showed up immediately in My Computer, and I was able to access everything on it.(the reason I assigned a different letter for it was because once I plugged in a flash drive without the WD hard drive plugged in, so the flash drive took the drive letter of the hard drive. Now I assigned the letter Z to the hard drive)
I was downloading a torrent to it.
Then the very next day, it stopped showing up again with the torrent no where near finishing...just started.
Now everything had returned to how it was as shown in the above pictures. Long beeping, show up everywhere except in My Computer.
There was also suggestion of not enough power from the USB ports. But I don't see it as a reason because it actually worked for a month.
I just tested it on another person's laptop, it showed the same symptom as on mine... long beeping with no showing in My Computer.
I don't get it, but I still don't think it is any hardware problem.
Someone please help me to make it to work again?
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